Department News and Updates

San Francisco Police investigators from the Central Police Station investigations team arrested the suspected Picasso art thief on 07/06/11.

The suspect who was identified as Mark Lugo, 30, of New Jersey, was taken into custody on 07/06/11 in Napa, CA.

In this incident, the suspect walked into an art gallery on the 300 block of Geary Street, where he removed a Picasso “pencil on paper” sketch worth $275,000. The suspect then walked out of the gallery into a taxi cab and fled the scene.

Investigators were able to interview witnesses and subsequently located cab driver and impounded taxi cab for evidence.

Through investigative leads, the suspect was subsequently identified and located at a hotel in Napa, CA where he was taken into custody without incident. The Picasso sketch was also recovered during a consent search of the premise where he was arrested.